MAHDUMKULU’YU ANLAMAK: A. ZEKİ VELİDİ TOGAN ÖRNEĞİ (UNDERSTANDING MAKHTUMGULI: A. ZEKİ VELİDİ TOGAN EXAMPLE)

Understanding and explaining the Turkmen poet and thinker Makhtumguli whose ideas are of customs of Sufism have been tried by various scientists at different times throughout history. Thus this scientific practice can be examined in two ways. The first is reading the Sufi poet's poetry in the right way and the other is understanding their meanings. They are indeed an issue that should be questioned. In short, the first point is related to the process of understanding the cultural heritage composing the concepts of meaning and terminology which is the reflection of the poetic construction and its publication and the second one is related to the meanings which the poet himself loaded to the words respectively. If half of the process of understanding the poet's corpus poetry constitutes publishing his poetry after examined carefully, being aware of the socio-mental structure of his contemporary time should constitute the other complementary half. If this issue carried out accurately, it will impact positively on determining the consciousness and thinking of Turkmens in XVIII century. This means by knowing the mental thinking system of XVIII century Turkmens - the people of the wisdom - who has high opinions about intelligence, an appropriate approach will be displayed. We will try to examine and study the works of Ahmet Zeki Togan which is a guide in publishing, entailing meaning and in other content related issues of Makhtumguli's poems, in another words who has put his heart and soul in his work. An ample space will be given to Togan's critical evaluations of the publications of the poems and portrayal of Makhtumguli in Togan's own contemporary time and before. And they will be referred to. In the mean time, it will be clarified and analysed that the fact that Togan firstly published Makhtumguli's poems comprehensively in 12-17 issues of the magazine called "Shoora" in Orenburg in 1913 and his unconditional characterisation of the poet as "Being religious Makhtumguli's poems are not "meshrep" (spiritual) or pure "tasavvouf" (sufism) and dervish poems like the poems of Ahmet Yesevi. He is a religious and moral educator of people - a philosopher of the public."